Smooth sailing on Chapter 9, choppy waters for charter

STOCKTON - The Stockton City Council wrestled Tuesday night with pivotal decisions, voting unanimously to approve 95 percent of its bankruptcy settlements and then later struggling with revisions to the city charter.

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By Kevin Parrish

recordnet.com

By Kevin Parrish

Posted Apr. 16, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Kevin Parrish

Posted Apr. 16, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

STOCKTON - The Stockton City Council wrestled Tuesday night with pivotal decisions, voting unanimously to approve 95 percent of its bankruptcy settlements and then later struggling with revisions to the city charter.

Council members voted 7-0 five times on resolutions approving the creditor agreements under the bankruptcy plan of adjustment. The action sets up May 12, the scheduled date for the city's Chapter 9 trial in federal court in Sacramento with its two remaining creditors.

Even with the pending trial, City Manager Kurt Wilson was confident Stockton's bankruptcy status would end by mid-summer.

"We are on pace to reach all of our agreements this fiscal year," Wilson said.

Marc Levinson is the city's bankruptcy attorney.

"This has been an arduous and expensive process," he said. "The council had as a goal, the relief of the general fund into the future. We reached that goal and got the general fund off the hook."

Wilson also pointed out that certain council-established principles had been achieved, including sustaining city services and making sure that "we never come back to bankruptcy again."

Retired businessman Gary Malloy, a regular at council meetings, disagreed with the City Hall assessment. Mayor Anthony Silva introduced him as Gary "Watchdog" Malloy.

"The bankruptcy plan is flawed," Malloy said. "We should look for more from the city's bondholders. They should take some hits or we'll be back in bankruptcy."

During the four-hour meeting, the council also dealt with a recommendation to further pursue regional fire dispatch possibilities and, after an hour-long discussion, voted 5-2 to overturn a unanimous Planning Commission decision to deny an off-sale liquor license to a Shop-N-Go market on Pacific Avenue.

The discussion over charter revisions proved to be the most contentious, in part because members of a 15-member citizens commission made it clear they felt like their recommendations were being ignored.

Shortly after the residents' panel was formed early last year, the council created its own ad hoc committee. The two groups haven't always been on parallel paths.

"We are disillusioned by the treatment of the council and city staff," said Howard Seligman, chairman of the Charter Review Advisory Commission. "We need assurances that our work won't be put on a shelf to gather dust."

Seligman is an attorney and a former city councilman. He expressed particular concerns about charter language involving what he called a "discretionary fund for the city manager" and language regarding the city auditor "in light of our recent history."

Marcie T. Bayne, a Stockton political consultant and fellow member of the commission, also spoke with bitterness and resentment.

"We want to have the best charter we can," she said. "But for the most part, these are the recommendations of staff. If that's all you want, why should I waste my time? I'll quit and so will others."

Tuesday night was the first of two required public hearings on the proposed charter changes. The next one is scheduled for May 20 and a vote is set for July.

Another complaint - from several residents and council members - was the slow pace of the charter-review considerations.

By state law, changes to the charter must go before the voters of Stockton and by state law that is impossible until November 2016.